WWE Battleground 2017 Review: Top Highlights and Low Points of SmackDown PPV

Every WWE event is presented as a potential war zone, but with the title Battleground, SmackDown's latest pay-per-view needed to amplify things to live up to the moniker.

On paper, the show did appear to have some appropriate flair with a Flag match putting the pride of America and Bulgaria on the shoulders of John Cena and Rusev, respectively, as well as Randy Orton attempting to win back the WWE Championship in a Punjabi Prison.

Even the United States Championship was on the line with former New Face of America Kevin Owens challenging AJ Styles, who had randomly usurped his title on a random live event in Madison Square Garden.

Promises are one thing but whether WWE delivered on that hype is an entirely different question, as every show has its ups and downs.

With the event now concluded, how did things pan out? Were there more positives or negatives throughout the night, and what moments stood out from the pack for better or worse?

It's time to look back on what happened at WWE Battleground 2017 and single out the biggest highlights and low points of Sunday evening, presented in order of appearance.

Low Point: Kickoff Pre-Show

Credit: WWE.com

Per usual, the Kickoff of Battleground 2017 was basically pointless to watch, as the majority of it was generic analysis and recaps of footage we've all seen the past few months.

This is par for the course, but at least when a good match takes place, it can sometimes offset the bad—this wasn't one of those cases.

The only match was Aiden English against Tye Dillinger, which had zero build, and it's doubtful anybody in the crowd had any true interest in it.

Even worse was how English captured the win, as his most recent gimmick was a crybaby loser. For him to beat Dillinger, though, does nothing but hurt The Perfect 10's reputation.

Nothing was really accomplished here other than hindering a solid NXT star who hasn't been given much of a chance to succeed on the main roster.

Highlight: The New Day Win the SmackDown Tag Team Championship

Credit: WWE.com

The New Day have been one of the best things to happen to tag team wrestling in WWE in the past decade, so any time they are holding the belts is a good thing.

The Usos had their time as champions and things were getting a little stale, meaning it was time for a change and there aren't many teams better suited to take on that responsibility than The New Day.

This was also a solid match with several near-falls to keep the excitement level up and to start off the main card in a positive way.

Where the tag team division goes from here will be an interesting scenario, as there aren't too many options to pick from. But with The New Day as champions, there's more of a guarantee that SmackDown will be in good hands.

Low Point: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin

Credit: WWE.com

The feud between Shinsuke Nakamura and Baron Corbin has been pretty bare bones as the former can't be trusted to cut a decent promo and the latter isn't strong enough in that regard to hold the program up on his own.

Basically, leading up to Battleground, this feud existed with just a few attacks backstage and nothing more.

When a feud has no substance to it, the pay-per-view match has to deliver to avoid making the whole thing seem like it wasn't worth investing in and this didn't reach that level of quality.

The end in particular was flat with Corbin getting himself disqualified, as that's the type of ending better suited for SmackDown than a pay-per-view.

Since this had no real enthusiasm behind it, nor any resolution, the feud is in a no-win situation. If it continues, who cares? If it ends now, what was the point?

Both of these stars are capable of much better, and the execution of their storyline has been handled poorly.

Highlight: United States Championship Match

Credit: WWE.com

As far as in-ring action goes, the United States Championship match between Kevin Owens and AJ Styles was perhaps the best of the night.

This should be no surprise, as the two men have consistently put on great matches with nearly every person they've been paired up with—particularly each other.

Unfortunately, the whole thing was hindered by an awkward finish which felt like an odd combination of coming out of nowhere as well as slow and meandering.

It will be interesting to see where WWE goes from here, as the title changing back and forth brings the roster back to where it was when this feud started rather than taking things in a different direction.

Whether that is a good or a bad thing remains to be seen, although for this event, the surprise title change along with the quality match leading up to that point made it one of the most water-cooler worthy moments of the night.

Low Point: No Resolution to the Fashion Files

Credit: WWE.com

It's strange to admit that one of the most interesting things on SmackDown right now is the mystery of who attacked The Fashion Police, but that's been the case for the past few weeks.

That is why it's a shame that a resolution was teased for Battleground, but nothing of the sort was delivered.

Instead, The Ascension were trotted out to reinforce they are still not the people responsible—something that was previously established.

This was still an entertaining enough segment, but it felt too rushed and it accomplished nothing, so for anybody looking forward to seeing the next chapter in the story, it was underwhelming.

Low Point: Punjabi Prison Match

Credit: WWE.com

From a visual perspective, the Punjabi Prison looks awesome as it seems over the top and dangerous.

When it's time to execute the gimmick, though, things start to fall apart.

The logistics of the match are problematic as the idea of opening up doors and having 60 seconds before they shut just forces it to follow a pattern of waiting until the last one is about to shut before something interesting finally happens.

What this mostly boiled down to was a lot of watching the clock and not enough action to make it exciting enough like the Royal Rumble or Beat the Clock challenges, which are much more fun.

After multiple segments that didn't live up to the hype or were just mediocre at best—such as the women's Fatal 5-Way and the Flag match—this needed to be good enough to end the show on a good note, but it didn't reach that goal.

Yes, watching one of The Singh Brothers fall from the cage onto the commentary table was fun, but one single spot doesn't make a match.

The big surprise after that was the return of The Great Khali, which admittedly was a fun shock until flashbacks of how horrible he was as a performer flood your mind and you remember he isn't a worthwhile acquisition to the company.

Overall, Battleground had its share of interesting moments, but they were spread out among a lot of odd decisions and dull matches that made the pay-per-view feel less amazing as a whole.

What do you think were the highlights and low points of the show? Do you agree or disagree with this list? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Anthony Mango is the owner of the wrestling website Smark Out Moment and the host of the podcast show Smack Talk on YouTube, iTunes and Stitcher. You can follow him on Facebook and elsewhere for more.